Three Kisses
by Shotzette
Summary: A between the lines look at One Heckuva Note.


Three Kisses

By Shotzette

Rated PG-13

This is a work of fanfiction only, written for grins and giggles. It is not intended to infringe upon anyone's copyrights or intellectual properties.

Another Friday night, and you have a date with your girlfriend, your on again-off again steady of the past five years. A movie, a late pizza, then some borderline harmless making out at her place.

Her place. The one place you don't want to be. Not because of her, because of her roommate.

The one you really want to be with.

You never knew that three kisses could change your life.

You could have walked away after the first one. You tried. She tried. It was a brief moment of passion, a fun evening taken too far, a mistake... You could have both pushed away, walked away, blamed it on the excitement of the rodeo and the cheap beer.

You both betrayed her that night.

You both apologized, flustered yet still highly aroused. You backed away from each other as you both babbled, tried to explain, to rationalize, to diffuse what just happened.

Within moments, your lips found hers again and all of your arguments were proved null and void.

You didn't wanted the second kiss to end anymore than the first. If your guilt become stronger, so had your attraction to her. Your girlfriend's roommate. Her very best friend.

You tried to play it cool. Be the man, be the one in control. Be responsible. It was your fault; you forced yourself upon her. Nice girls didn't want to do what you wanted her to do...

Hell, Shirley had never...

She was different. Every pore of her body seemed to scream out for your touch, yet she shoved you away, and admitted to you that she was out of control. You'd never seen a woman lose control that way, didn't think they could...

You didn't sleep a wink that night. You lay awake in your lonely and cold bed, thinking all the while how warm it would be with her beside you. The guilt became less painful with every passing hour.

It was harder seeing her the next day, in the unforgiving fluorescent light of the Pizza Bowl. The previous night made even less sense. Once again, Shirley brought you together. Once again, she insisted that you two spend another evening together while she was busy. You tried to get out of it. Hell, you both tried to get out of it...

The guilt became worse, your girlfriend, asking her roommate to have dinner with you since she had to cancel. She hadn't wanted you to be alone and disappointed...

Or so you thought, as you had wracked your brain trying to think of yet another excuse to not to go. Then you heard Shirley say that she didn't want you alone. Or, out where you would be tempted by other women. She wanted you with someone she could trust.

Apparently, trusting you wasn't an option.

Anger had made you agree to her dinner plans. It didn't matter what you did, she'd never fully trust you, never fully give herself...

Your guilt was completely gone by then.

You tried to write what you felt for Laverne on a card, but it was a pale echo of your desire. The moment she opened her door, the card and the bouquet felt foolish and stilted, like props for First Date 101.

Neither were worthy of her, or what you had felt that night.

She looked beautiful. Any pretense of a casual evening was shattered as she stood there before you in one of her "hot date" dresses. In all the years you'd known her, you'd never seen her words so contradictory with her expression and movement.

Your guilt might have been gone, but hers was still in full bloom. Your card and the flowers were hastily done away with, as she was hell-bent on getting rid of the evidence. She then sat you down at the dinner table with all the joy and spontaneity of a drill sergeant.

The third kiss clinched the deal. You were in head over heels, and you weren't even trying to look back.

But...

The pain in her eyes was too much for you to bear. It was at that moment you knew, knew for sure, that it couldn't go any further. That the pain of betraying her best friend would always stand between you two. She would never allow you to make her as happy as she deserved to be.

That's when you had made the decision to end it without ending it, to make it so she'd never look at you with romance in her heart again.

You hurt her.

You had preyed on her biggest insecurity--her looks--then let the insults fly. You started small, then got more mean with each bitter sentence.

She threw back a few insults of her own, "Brillo-Head!", "Squat-Dancer!".

Her words didn't hurt you one bit. The cruel things you said to her had already ripped your guts out.

Then, she had her realization. She didn't love you.

She never had.

She mistook the intimacy of friendship for romance. Like a simpleton, you nodded and agreed.

Romance. The word didn't cover the tightening you felt in your gut, the overwhelming desire you had to take her into your arms and love her until you both forgot about Shirley, both had forgot your own names...

Romance. Friendship taken too far. She needed to believe that lie, and who were you to correct her?

Instead, you just smiled your handsome smile that had charmed so many girls into the back seat of your car, and wished her a good night.

And it was over. But, it wasn't. Not for you.

You knock on their door. As always, your habitual shave-and-a-haircut knock is recognized.

"Come in, Carmine."

You smile and enter. You see her standing by the couch, fixing her face in her hand mirror. She speaks to you without looking up. "Shirley's still getting ready, Carmine."

"Okay." You stand there, awkwardly. "Big plans tonight?"

She blots her lipstick, her eyes still on her own reflection. "Yeah, me and Ted are trying that new Chinese place on Third Avenue."

You force a smile. "I heard that it's pretty good."

She still doesn't look your way. "Yeah, me to. Gotta run, I'm meeting Ted at the firehouse."

You watch her back as she dashes to her front door, as you curse Ted for not picking her up at her place and curse her for not insisting. The door slams with a bang you feel throughout your spine. You hear footsteps drawing closer and put on your game face.

"Hey, Angelface! You look beautiful tonight..."

FIN


End file.
